Educating the public on the intersection of the death penalty and severe mental illness.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Quintero Found Guilty

A Harris County jury has found Juan Leonardo Quintero guilty of capital murder in the death of Houston Police Officer Rodney Johnson ("Quintero convicted of capital murder in death of HPD officer," May 8, 2008). The case now moves to the sentencing phase, where jurors will decided whether to sentence Quintero to life in prison without the possibility of parole or to give him the death penalty.Here's an excerpt from the article that appeared in yesterday's Chronicle:"Quintero's defense team has worked to show he is not guilty of capital murder by reason of insanity.

Two psychologists and a neuropsychologist said a childhood fall caused brain damage that caused Quintero to perceive Johnson as a threat and take unreasonable action.

'Officer Johnson was a hero. He was a family man,' Recer said. 'We have an explanation. It's just not the quick, easy, bumper-sticker explanation the prosecution wants you to believe.'

Recer said she worked to figure out what was wrong with Quintero and what he was thinking.

'Because he sure wasn't thinking like any of us,' she said.

She said Quintero's 'bad brain' has an overactive threat-detection system, usually assuaged by drinking about 24 beers a day. But on that day, Quintero had about six beers.

Quintero acknowledged in a videotaped statement that, although his hands were cuffed behind his back, he shot Johnson while locked in the backseat of the patrol car."

Contributors

Facts about Mental Illness and the Death Penalty

· The State of Texas ranks 47th nationally in terms of per capita spending on mental healthcare, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. It ranks 1st in executions (more than 400 since 1982).

· Around 30 percent of those incarcerated in Texas prison or jails have been clients of the state’s public mental health system. (TX Department of Criminal Justice)

· The U.S. Supreme Court has prohibited the death penalty for people with mental retardation, but it has not excluded offenders with severe mental illness from this punishment. Texas law also does not adequately protect those with diminished capacity from a death sentence.

· At least 20 individuals with documented diagnoses of paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other persistent and severe mental illnesses have been executed by the State of Texas. Many had sought treatment before the commission of their crimes, but were denied long-term care.